Recently, Chris and I felt lucky not to have caught covid since the pandemic started in early 2020. That said, not that we would know in the early days before tests were available.  We both had bad colds/flu in March 2020 but we will never find out if that was covid or not.  I wrote about this experience in a diary I maintained over that period.

It was therefore a bit of a shock when both of us finally tested positive in the middle of 2022, despite surviving unscathed through several waves since the pandemic began in early 2020.  To this day, we (mostly me) remain slightly paranoid about protecting ourselves.  e.g. I have maintained the habit of not touching door handles with my bare hands to this day.  My brother-in-law described us as the most covid careful people he knows. 

We were on holiday 2 weeks ago, not too far from home, only around 50 miles north.  I had been feeling a tickle at the back of my throat on our second day which seemed like a run-of-the-mill issue.  As we were meeting friends later that day (Wednesday 29th June), just to be sure, both of us took a covid test and both were negative.  We tend to trust the tests.  However, after meeting our friends, my symptoms worsened pretty quickly that evening and Chris decided we would go home the following day.  It was an uncomfortable night, mainly with shivers, fever, and aches and pains.  We limped home as planned the following morning – luckily, Chris was able to confidently drive the motorhome all the way back.  At home on Thursday 30th June, we took another test, I was positive, but Chris was still negative.  I got into bed later that day and literally stayed there for a week, I had zero energy.  Within 24 hours, the coughing started, a productive cough with brown/rust coloured sputum, a classic sign of a chest infection/pneumonia (I have a history of those, so knew what was coming next to a certain extent).  I find this type of illness scarier than the NET!

Other symptoms which started pretty early included headaches, aches and pains, wheezing/tight chest.  I also checked my saturated oxygen levels, temperature, and heartbeat.   The latter was initially around 10 beats higher than my normal resting rate.  The saturated oxygen levels were between 92 and 95 (only slightly lower than normal) and the temperature was around 1-degree centigrade higher than my normal.  The fever only lasted 48 hours and the aforementioned tests all returned to normal simultaneously.  The coughing was relentless with my Ventolin inhaler (for my mild asthma) most likely only functioning in placebo mode as I puffed away hoping for some relief! It took around 2-3 days for the sputum to change to green and then another 2-3 days to become clear.

Chris tested positive 36 hours after me and had most of the same symptoms, particularly fatigue, headaches and coughing, she also had sickness. She also spent quite a bit of time in bed.  We both slept in different bedrooms to avoid disturbing each other. She recovered quicker than me, testing negative 24 hours earlier than I did, but her symptoms were still pretty bad and debilitating. 

The most unusual symptom for me was nausea which had a knock-on effect to my appetite.   I lost 2kg/5lbs in a week, not a lot really.  The nausea was still there even after I finally tested negative on 9th July.  I’ve been clear of that now for 48 hours.  For me, that was a horrible symptom, probably because it’s not something I’m used to experiencing.

Three days after testing negative, I’m still experiencing the coughing symptom, but I’m told this can be pretty much normal for many people.  Nonetheless, I’ll be glad when it stops! 

We survived but we really don’t want to get it again. 

Stay safe all!